Lorde is already hard at work on her follow-up to 2021’s Solar Power album. “It has taken me quite a while [to start working on it],” she told Ensemble magazine. “I mean, I do just take a long time… I do a lot of research, I write a lot down.”
She then broke down her workflow for her as-yet-untitled project, saying, “Sort of a big chunk of work before I actually start writing music. So yeah, that’s been a really big part of it. It’s been super exciting and I feel excited about what’s coming.” Lorde also gave some hope that it may not be another four years of waiting, as it was between her second and third albums.
“You know, it’s my intention, it’s always my intention, to move as quickly as I f—ng can and then that ends up taking different forms,” she said. “But this one, I really am trying to. I don’t want to wait, you know, so take from that what you will.”
And while she didn’t share any details about who she’s working with or what sound fans can expect, it seems unlikely that we’ll hear it this year… maybe. “Anything could happen. Let’s see!,” she said.
Back in September during her headlining set at Los Angeles’ Primavera Sound festival, the singer began teasing her next era. “Who knows what will come next?” she said while running through the themes of her three studio albums. “Well, I know. And you’ll know sometime soon.”
Though Power was polarizing for some fans (and critics), Lorde told the magazine that she took the response in stride, accepting that some people liked it and some didn’t. “I think the third album is like always a real… you do sort of cross over in a way, you know, you’re not new any more, and also you want maybe different things,” she said. “I had real things I wanted that I just had to do with that album, and I feel more clear and calm for having done that.”
She also explained why after the cycle of recording and touring her 2017 sophomore album Melodrama everything felt… “too big… It felt like people believed in me too much or something. I was like, I’m 20 or 21, this is my hobby. You know, I felt really spooked by it. And so to sort of go down this weird road and for people to have absolutely no idea what’s going to come next, that is super cool to me. I’m stoked that I don’t feel pigeonholed at this stage.“
Lorde is gearing up for the latest round of dates on her Solar Power tour, with dates in her native New Zealand kicking off on Feb. 21 in Wellington and gigs in Australia slated to run through a March 18 gig in Perth at Belvoir Amphitheater.
